Strand separation, counting and feeding



Nov. 5, 1968 D. E. ORC'UTT 3,409,170

STRAND SEPARATION, COUNTING AND FEEDING Filed Dec. 8, 1966 5Sheets-Sheet 1 JNVENTOR. DONALD EUGENE ORCUTT MMWQQ ATTORNEY Nov. 5,1968 D. E. ORCUTT 3,409,170

STRAND SEPARATION, COUNTING AND FEEDING Filed Dec. 8, 1966 5Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. DONALD EUGENE ORCUTT BY MMA%-% ATTORNEY 3Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. DONALD EUGENE ORCUTT ATTORNEY Nov. 5, 1968 D.E. ORCUTT STRAND SEPARATION, COUNTING AND FEEDING Filed Dec. 8, 1966United States Patent 3,409,170 STRAND SEPARATION, COUNTING AND FEEDINGDonald Eugene ()rcutt, New Fairfield, Conn., assignor to AmericanCyanamid Company, Stamford, Conn., a corporation of Maine Filed Dec. 8,1966, Ser. No. 600,077 7 Claims. (Cl. 221-7) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREIndividual strands, from a bundle of strands, are independentlyseparated, and optionally counted or fed to a subsequent process, byplacing the bundle in a notch above a revolving or reciprocating wheelhaving grooves of a size to receive the major part of one individualstrand, whereby one strand drops into a groove, and is passed under aspring-loaded resilient block, which holds back all other strands. Theseparated strand is photoelectrically counted, or discharged into theedge of the nip of revolving feed rolls.

Background of the invention The problem of separating strands from abundle containing a large number of them and feeding them and/ orcounting them arises particularly in the case of surgical sutures, whichare often produced in bundles which may contain a hundred or moresutures, the sutures often being quite long, for example about fivefeet. This renders the bundle somewhat awkward to handle. Surgicalsutures always have to be counted at some stage and often have to be fedsingly to other processing devices, such as for example grinders, in thecase of catgut sutures, sorters to sort sutures of different diameters,and the like. Sometimes it is only necessary to count the sutures, asfor example in the case where sutures are not to be processedmechanically but are to be separated into smaller bundles ofpredetermined numbers. It has been the practice in the past, withsutures, to do, by hand, the operations of separating from bundles,feeding into further processing or counting. This presents severaldrawbacks. First of all, there is the cost of an additional operator.Then, when one relies upon manual operation the output is limited by therate at which an operator can separate individual sutures from a bundleand feed them into further processing machinery. When counting ofsutures is involved, this is hard on the operators eyes, and thepossibility of human error becomes a significant factor, especially ifan operator becomes tired. For these and other reasons there has been ademand for a completely accurate, simple and automatic machine forseparating and/or counting sutures. Some complicated devices involvinreciprocating plungers, air blasts, and the like have been proposed, butthey involve considerable complication, and in some cases the accuracyand speed are not all which could be desired.

Summary of the invention The present invention is directed to animproved machine for separating strands, each strand being held in theseparated position reliably and, if desired, counted. Essentially thepresent invention involves loading a large bundle onto a machine withone or more V notches, which has its bottom or apex covered by arotating or reciprocating wheel provided with notches or grooves in itsperiphery, capable of grasping a strand, moving it out from the notch,and transporting it to or through other mechanisms, such as counters,single strand feeders, and the like. The wheel can be very accuratelyadjusted so that a single strand at a time is picked up, or perhaps morelogically picked down, sincethe wheel removes the strand from the bottomof the notch. A resilient foot at the point of separation insures asingle strand being fed, without damage to it or to the strands not yetfed. At the same time, the operation is very fast, being limited only bythe other equipment, such as single strand feeders, which may be usedwith the machine. Another advantage is that the grooves or notches inthe periphery of the separating wheel are rounded and polished and thefoot is of resilient material and there is, therefore, no danger ofinjuring the surface of a strand. The danger of injury to the surface ofthe suture is greater with catgut sutures, which can fray, but is alsoof concern, although less important, with softer sutures such as braidedpolyester, nylon, and the like.

While the surgical suture field is the most important single field ofutility for the present invention, it should be understood that themachine is not limited thereto and can separate, count or feed strandsfor any use. As the suture separating and feeding or counting field isthe most important and presents the problems solved by the presentinvention most clearly, the specific description which will follow isfor use of the machine with sutures, it being understood, of course,that this is merely a typical illustration and the invention in itsbroader aspects is not limited thereto.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is an isometric view of amachine for separating and feeding surgical sutures, and

FIG. 2 is a similar isometric view of a machine equipped for countingsutures without feeding them to other processing machines.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of part of the machine showing detailsof the separating mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged first sequential view showing the wheel with thenotch containing a suture approaching the resilient insert.

5 is a view showing the wheel with the notch contaming a suture afterthe suture has passed under the resilient block partially lifting theresilient block, as the resilient block prevents other sutures fromfollowing.

FIG. 6 is a view showing the wheel with the notch contaming a suture asthe suture is about to emerge from under the resilient block.

7 is a view showing the wheel with the notch contaming the suture afterit is passed under the resilient block, with the resilient blockdropping down against the wheel, and holding back other sutures.

FIG. 8 is a view of the wheel with the now empty groove, as the sutureis discharged.

Description of the preferred embodiments As many of the parts of themachines in the three figures are the same, they will be given the samereference numerals in each figure.

In FIG. 1 there is shown a framework at 1 on which the component partsof the machine are mounted. A bulkhead 2 is provided with a notch 3, oneside of which is sloping and the other including a member, which ismovable, pivoted about a bolt 8, and provided with a rubber insert 7. Atthe bottom of the notch there is a wheel 5 provided with a series ofround grooves 15. The rubber insert 7 in the movable member 4 is heldagainst the periphery of the wheel by the spring 9. A bundle of sutures6, for example catgut sutures, is loaded onto the notch 3 and issupported on the top 10 of a compartment 11 containing the motor drives,which being of standard design are not specifically shown. The front ofthe compartment 11 carries suitable switches, as labeled, and the top 10is provided with a window 12, behind which there is a counter 21 ofconventional design. Loading a bundle of sutures on the machine can bedone rapidly when a new bundle is to be counted or fed, the only carerequired being that the left hand end of the suture bundle projectsufficiently beyond the notch 3 so that a separated suture can begrasped by the wheel 5 cooperating with the rubber insert 7.

Loading suture bundles occurs only at longer intervals as a bundle ofsutures may have 100 or more. The loading can be effected manually, asillustrated in the drawings, though of course automatic loading may beprovided if desired. Saving by automatic over manual loading is,however, so small that it is normally preferred to load manually. Thewheel 5 may be rotated continuously or it may be reciprocated through asufficient arc to pick up a suture and transfer it down to the dischargepoint 13. This is shown in the enlarged view, FIG. 3, and sequentedviews FIGS. 4 to 8. The choice of reciprocation or continuous rotationdepends on the use. With counters, only, which will be described inconjunction with FIG. 2, the faster operation with continuous rotationpresents some advantages. However, in FIG. 1, where the separated sutureis fed to a single strand feeder, which will be described below, areciprocation has more than adequate speed and has an advantage that thegrooves 15 in the wheel 5 may be of different size so that differentsizes of sutures can be fed by loosening the lock 14 on the wheel shaftand turning it so that another groove of different size comes into play.As the reciprocating mechanism is of standard design, it is not shown.It is enclosed in the compartment 11.

The dimensions of the grooves 15 are important; more than 50% of thesuture must be in the groove for proper separation, and the rubberinsert 7 has a sharp leading edge in order to prevent feeding more thanone strand at a time. A typical example of groove dimensions for anominal .020" suture (dimension ranges from .016" to .024), is .018"deep and .024" wide. Actually, this size of groove could operate with asuture as large as .026".

As the wheel 5 reciprocates, a groove 15 passes along the bottom of thenotch 3 picking up a single suture by cooperation with the rubber insert7. The wheel moves on, carrying the suture underneath the rubber insertto a position shown at 13. While no very serious harm is done if anoccasional suture does not fall into a groove when it is passing acrossthe bottom of the notch 3, it is still desirable to prevent thishappening, particularly in the modification shown in FIG. 1 where theseparated suture is fed on to other equipment. This is easily effectedby having many sutures lying at the bottom of notch 3 so that one willalways fall into a groove 15 as it passes.

When the wheel 5 is moved to the extreme position and the suture is at13, it will be seen that it is beneath the member 4 and so is free tomove longitudinally. The suture is gripped by a pair of rollers 16 andis fed on through a single strand feeder 17 with an enlarged conicalguiding mouth 18. In FIG. 1 this suture is shown as moved by the rollers16 to the point where it is entering the single strand feeder. Therollers 16 rotate continuously at a predetermined speed suitable for thesingle strand feeder and their tops are rounded so that as the suture ismoved down to the position 13 by the wheel'S it falls into contact withthe turning faces and is driven forward, as has been described. Thesingle strand feeder 17 can feed the suture into any suitable equipment,such as grinding or other processing equipment. The nature of thisequipment forms no part of the present invention and is, therefore, notshown.

The rate of reciprocation of the wheel 5 should be adjusted inaccordance with the speed of the rollers 16 so that a new strand isbrought into contact with the rollers as the proceeding strand leavesthem. In general the rate of feed is adjusted by determining the speedof the rollers 16, the reciprocating drive of the wheel 5 being alwaysproportional thereto, through suitable gearing. When a bundle isexhausted or nearly exhausted, the operator can replace another bundleon the device, with or without stopping and starting the machine, as maybe desired, depending on the circumstances of use.

FIG. 2 shows a modification for counting sutures, many of the partsbeing the same as those shown in FIG. 1 and so bearing the samenumerals. In this modification wheel 5 turns continuously and so, ofcourse, can be used only with one size of suture. However, loosening ofthe locking cap 14 permits rapid replacement of the wheel when a newsize of suture is to be counted. As the wheel is not reciprocated, asomewhat different counting mechanism is shown, including a lamp 20 andan electric eye or counter 19, which later goes to the counter readout21. Much faster operation is possible than when the separated strandsare to be passed on to other equipment, as shown in FIG. 1, and this maybe effected either by turning the wheel 5 faster or providing it with alarger number of grooves 15 or both. It will be noted that since thereare no rollers 16 the separated strands form a new bundle and when thedesired number has been counted the machine stops, by conventionalinterconnection of the counter with the starting and stopping switch.The counted bundle is removed and the machine restarted. Instead ofstopping the drive to the machine, a clutch can be provided, which isnot shown, and the motor may operate continuously.

The counting mechanism may perform the function of keeping an accuraterecord of the number of sutures fed to other equipment in themodification of FIG. 1, or it may be used to alert an operator that abundle of sutures is almost exhausted, or it can perform both functions.The alerting function obviously requires contact with suitable alarm,such as a light, when a number of sutures has been counted somewhat lessthan the normal number in a bundle. This makes it possible for a singleoperator to monitor more than one machine or more than one operation.

The present invention is a machine and as such is not broadly concernedwith the materials of which the machine is formed. However, it isdesirable to have the notch 3 with its sides and the wheel 5 of suitablematerial for the nature of the sutures or other strands which are to beseparated. Usually metals are desirable as they do not wear rapidly andcan take a high polish. The insert 7 must, of course, be of softmaterial, but otherwise the choice of materials for the machine islimited only by practical consideration of suitability. The operation ofthe machine, of course, is not affected by the material of which it isconstructed.

I claim:

1. A strand separating machine for separating strands from a bundlecomprising in combination:

(a) a framework with at least one bundle supporting notch, locatedadjacent to the end of a bundle of strands and having a groovedseparating wheel above the notch apex,

(b) the separating wheel having its periphery adjacent to andeffectively closing the apex of the notch and being provided withperipheral grooves of dimensions so that a suture is at least 50% in thegroove, the wheel having a plurality of widely spaced grooves ofdifferent sizes for different sized strands,

(c) a soft, resilient member maintained in contact with the wheelperiphery and positioned to prevent a suture in the groove from jumpingout as the wheel moves,

(d) means for reciprocating the wheel through an are less than thespacing between grooves of different sizes but at least sufficient tomove a groove with a strand therein out of contact with the resilientmember and to a position where the strand falls out of the groove, and

(e) means for bringing grooves of different predetermined sizes into thearc of reciprocation near the bottom of the notch and for holding suchgrooves during reciprocation of the wheel through the arc.

2. A machine according to claim 1 provided with means for counting eachseparated strand.

3. A strand separating machine for separating strands from a bundlecomprising in combination:

(a) a framework with an extended bundle supporting means including atleast one bundle supporting notch located adjacent to one end of abundle of strands,

(b) a narrow grooved separating wheel above the notch apex the width ofthe Wheel being at least an order of magnitude less than the length ofthe bundle supporting means,

(0) the separating wheel having its periphery adjacent to andeffectively closing the apex of the notch and being provided withperipheral grooves of dimensions so that a strand is at least 50% in thegroove,

(d) a soft resilient member maintained in contact with the wheelperiphery and positioned to prevent a strand in the groove from jumpingout as the wheel moves,

(e) means for moving the wheel through an are at least sufiicient tomove a groove with a strand therein out of contact with the resilientmember and to a position where the strand falls out of the groove.

4. A machine according to claim 3- in which the wheel is continuouslyrotated.

5. A machine according to claim 4 provided with means for counting eachseparated strand.

6. A machine according to claim 3 comprising means, engaged by aseparated strand, for translating said strand axially, whereby themachine separates strands and moves each separated strand axially out ofthe bundle.

7. A machine according to claim 6 in which the movement of the wheel isa reciprocation over a fraction of a full turn, and timing means toprovide one reciprocation during the time required for moving one strandaxially by the translating means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,723,049 11/1955 Ward 221-2373,170,627 2/1965 Pearson et al. 221--7 3,206,065 9/1965 Netta 2212373,329,310 7/1967 Ramsay 221-266 STANLEY H. TOLLBERG, Primary Examiner.

